Stripped bolt or pan?

[FastJohnny]

Last Tuesday, I was doing some maintenaince to get the bike ready for the road this year. Basic stuff, oil change, new air filter, put the battery back in and installed the pigtail for a battery tender, chain wax, and checking the tire pressure.

I overtightened the Oil Pan drain bolt to the point where something stripped. Now it will only tighten up to ~20 LB FT or so and then gets loose again. It was such a nice day out that I got it as tight as I could, and rode anyways, but kept it local.

I was hoping to come up with an inexpensive solution here.

I was thinking maybe clean out my drain pan with WD-40 and then dry it with paper towels and drain the $30 worth of oil into it. Then cover it with some saran wrap. Then remove and replace the bolt (after buying a torque wrench) and if it holds put the oil back in.

Unfortunately I have this sneaking suspicion that althought the bolt is steel, the oil pan looks like its aluminum, and we all know which metal would strip first.

Its hard to find an oil pan on ebay that doesnt have tabs broken off of it or some kind of other damage, and a new one is about $100.

Any ideas or suggestions?

[bigred875]

probably the pan, you will need to either drill out and helicoil or get a new pan. take the bolt out and check it to make sure...

[Paul_E_D]

Sure, fix it with a Helicoil and be careful in the future. Or, if it's only 100 bucks, just get hte new pan. The helicoil fix will run you close to half that by the time you get all the tools you need, plus a bit of time to do it carefully.

[LuvDog]

ditto the others... or i suppose you could find a larger diameter drain bolt... and drill and tap the oil pan for it.

[Paul_E_D]

If you do drill it, either for heli-coil or a bigger bolt, I recommend using a drill press to get it perfectly straight.

[KB]

spend the ton!

KB

[SSearchVT]

Spend the $100 and have it right (get a new drain plug and washer too). To properly drill it out and tap it you'll have to take it off the bike, track down the bolt, tap drill, etc... By the time you're finished you might be about $10 bucks ahead, but will have wasted a bunch of your time.

[beet]

Try to bring the bolt, to the auto parts store & see if they have a over sized one that would fit.

[gmdboston]

Last Tuesday, I was doing some maintenaince to get the bike ready for the road this year. Basic stuff, oil change, new air filter, put the battery back in and installed the pigtail for a battery tender, chain wax, and checking the tire pressure.

I overtightened the Oil Pan drain bolt to the point where something stripped. Now it will only tighten up to ~20 LB FT or so and then gets loose again. It was such a nice day out that I got it as tight as I could, and rode anyways, but kept it local.

I was hoping to come up with an inexpensive solution here.

I was thinking maybe clean out my drain pan with WD-40 and then dry it with paper towels and drain the $30 worth of oil into it. Then cover it with some saran wrap. Then remove and replace the bolt (after buying a torque wrench) and if it holds put the oil back in.

Unfortunately I have this sneaking suspicion that althought the bolt is steel, the oil pan looks like its aluminum, and we all know which metal would strip first.

Its hard to find an oil pan on ebay that doesnt have tabs broken off of it or some kind of other damage, and a new one is about $100.

Any ideas or suggestions?

I have the heli coil kit if you can take off the pan great, if not I can do it on the bike.

[FastJohnny]

I've seen mixed reviews about those heli-coil kits. Plus, I dont have a drill press so I would have to take it somewhere like Computrack, which is a good 1.5 hours from here. Too far to ride the bak while it's pissing synthetic, so Id have to take the pan off and drive it out there. I think Im better off just replacing it with a new one.

Thanks for the help guys.

[SVRACER01]

if you really want to get fancy. get some of that steel epoxy and stick it in the drain hole and run the bolt into it a couple of times then take out the bolt and let it set. that should fix the threads. OR JB Weld the bolt on and never change the oil and just change bikes every few thousand miles

but seriously... the first one would work as an inexpensive way.

[FastJohnny]

Ya know I was feeling shitty about the fact that I dont have the money to do this right, and it's supposed to be 69 out tomorrow, and i have the day off.

Then I thought of a $10 fix that should tide me over for a week and a half or so until i can fix this right.

Red Loctite
WD-40 (to clean the oil pan the oil is going into)

Any problem with putting red loctite on the oil pan drain plug? It won't melt, circulate, and reharden in the head will it?

[joeswamp]

I don't think red Loctite will work because the threads are damaged. You can't really use Loctite to rebuild mangled metal.

The solution here is epoxy, as Oxx said. Either use it to rebuild the threads or epoxy the bolt on permanently (you can save for a new pan for your next oil change). Make sure you clean the metal with super strong solvent like brake cleaner before you apply the epoxy.

That metal epoxy stuff is great, I used it to weld up some rust pinholes in the oil pan of an old Corolla -- lasted for at least a year then I sold the car.

[FastJohnny]

Thats going to include taking the pan off and putting it back on. Which Im not really willing to do without a torque wrench. All I really care about is stopping the bolt from falling out. Its torqued to about 20 ft-lbs as is, so it's not that mangled. There's got to be an easier way to stop a bolt from falling out for a week. Duct tape? Maybe I could get a shop to throw a couple tack welds on it.

All I know is that when I take that pan off, Im putting a new one back on.

[FastJohnny]

What if I used the metal epoxy to make a smear around the head of the bolt and the pan, or backed the bolt out a bit, put it on the inside of the head, and torqued it back down?

[wylee]

Safety wire it. If you're getting it to 20ft lb, you should be okay for a few days with it safety wired.

[FastJohnny]

Safety wire it. If you're getting it to 20ft lb, you should be okay for a few days with it safety wired.

how do i do that?

[wylee]

Drill a hole through the head of the bolt, put a wire through it, then tie the wire off so the bolt cannot back itself out.

[FastJohnny]

Drill a hole through the head of the bolt, put a wire through it, then tie the wire off so the bolt cannot back itself out.

wow thats really simple, thanks.

[joeswamp]

Thats going to include taking the pan off and putting it back on. Which Im not really willing to do without a torque wrench. All I really care about is stopping the bolt from falling out. Its torqued to about 20 ft-lbs as is, so it's not that mangled. There's got to be an easier way to stop a bolt from falling out for a week. Duct tape? Maybe I could get a shop to throw a couple tack welds on it.

All I know is that when I take that pan off, Im putting a new one back on.

No, you don't need to take the pan off, but you will need to drain it overnight, clean the hole really well with a rag soaked in solvent, put the epoxy on, let it dry, etc. Actually I wonder how well it'd work if you lined the hole with epoxy and retapped it, the stuff can't be that much softer than that squishy aluminum. Of course you'd then need to buy a tap (which you would pack with grease to catch the chips).

If it's not leaking and you can drill the bolt head with it on the bike, by all means safety wire it.

[gmdboston]

Johnny, none of those ideas will work. The only way to fix it is to heli-coil (the bad reviews are from those that don't know how to install them correctly) or replace the pan. Don't fuck around with half assed patches. Fix it right or don't ride it.

[richw]

Peter is right

loose the bolt
lose the oil
lose the motor

I would have a dab of sealant around the helicoil OD for sealant purpose.

The helicoil is better then new

I am sure you crossthreaded it then destroyed the threads when you tightened it.

[SSearchVT]

Peter is right

loose the bolt
lose the oil
lose the motor

I would have a dab of sealant around the helicoil OD for sealant purpose.

The helicoil is better then new

I am sure you crossthreaded it then destroyed the threads when you tightened it.

Don't forget - if the oil starts to drain out at speed - there's the potential of spraying the back tire down...

Free advise - Fix it right and be done with it... Replace the pan if you don't feel comfortable doing the work yourself, or go to a proper shop and have them install a helicoil or an oversized bolt. either way - the pan needs to come off the bike.

[FastJohnny]

It's fixed.. it wasn't crossthreaded, I just over-torqued it when I retightened the bolt. I took the bolt out and checked it and the threads were filled with a single aluminum piece that spiraled half way up the threads of the bolt. I took the bolt to pepboys and with the help of an associate there, used a digital caliper to measure my bolt with a double oversized 1/2 inch bolt, it was something like .75mm larger than my bolt, and the threads and length of the bolt were a perfect match. I installed it slowly and steadily and it worked perfectly. I torqued it to 60 Lb-ft, cleaned the surrounding area, started the bike and let it warm up. No more leak.

AND I STILL HAVE TIME TO GET OUT THERE TODAY!!

[benVFR]

WTF - do you have the service manual?

60lb-ft? That's more like engine mount torque. No wonder you ran into trouble.

Is this a common thing? Are supersports made of that flimsy materials now that the oil pan is that much softer then the drain bolt?